Gundam Build Fighters: Advent
by Criticanon
Summary: A story focused on the rise of the second world competition and the competitors within.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Build Fighters, I make no money off this fanfic and I do this only for fun

Build Fighters: Advent

Chapter 1: Defender Rising.

With high expectations, modelers and robot enthusiasts' step out of the confines of their hobby and into the realms of the Gunpla battle, however the Gunpla battle official tournaments are a realm of chaos in the ever changing competitions. The year is 2024, the Plavsky Particle battle tables are being sold everywhere, and the Gunpla battle tournaments are rapidly becoming an international sport and the second international tournament is approaching, our story today chronicles the first of the many competitors.

May 19th, 2024, Dallas, TX, 8:15 AM, University Grounds.

Sliding into his chair, 23 year old Calvin Ringo was quick to get clocked in, he counted himself lucky as today was the last day of his data entry internship in the Universities IT department and in a few months he'd be starting his job at a local Law Firm's IT department as a technician, in the meantime he'd have a nice vacation and a window to work on his hobby.

After he'd clocked in Calvin set to his work and throughout the day pausing to check the status of his incoming shipment. 'The Amazon drone should arrive around the time I get home, perfect.' He thought with a content smile.

2:30 PM, Calvin's home.

While most college students stuck to the Dorms or rented out an Apartment, Calvin had been left a beautiful house and a moderate inheritance by his late grandparents, his Grandfather was a master craftsman and had taken a shoddy 1,500 SQ FT wooden shack and turned into a 3,500 SQ FT brick home with five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen with wood cabinets, a tile floor, and in the backyard of the house was a Garage with a Shop filled with the various carpenter, and model building tools his Grandfather had acquired over the years.

When Calvin arrived back at the house and checked to see if the Drone carrying his package had arrived, surprisingly it hadn't. _'Eh, no matter. I can get all my materials ready in the shop.'_ Heading into the shop, Calvin was quick to grab his modeler tools, a pair of cutters specialized for Gunpla, an Xacto knife, some 900 grit sand paper, a bottle of plastic weld, two cans of Tamiya Black Spray paint, and- 'Wait, where's the orange… Aw crap.' Pulling out the can of Orange Spray paint and feeling the weight of it Calvin realized he'd burnt the last of the paint on his last Gunpla project. 'Ah well, I can get some at the hobby shop to kill time while I wait for that Drone, maybe even run an AI match with the Defender.' Heading back into the house and down to the bedroom he'd converted into his Gunpla room, Calvin took a moment to admire his collection.

If there was one thing he took pride in, it was his Gunpla. Displayed in order of acquisition he'd built up a collection of over 70 different kits over the course of three years. Starting with a No Grade (NG) 1/100 Cherudim, and ending with his first custom Gunpla, the High Grade Builder Custom Gelgoog Defender. The suit bore the basic look of the Gelgoog Jager, but with some key differences. First off, instead of the bulky shoulders the Jager was known for, the Defender had instead been outfitted with smaller shoulders from the Hyaku Shiki, and had the stubby arms of the Jager replaced with the longer and somewhat bulkier arms of the Delta Plus. For weaponry, the Defender had been equipped with the traditional Beam Machinegun that the Jager was known for, a beam axe taken from the Sinanju mounted on the skirt armor, and a small boxer shield taken from a Gelgoog Marine. Finally there was the custom paint job, a simple two tone Black and Orange scheme, with the forearms, the skirt armor, the top half of the feet and the legs past the knee being orange, the arms past the elbow, the shoulders, the chest, the head, and the bottom half of the feet painted black. While the Defender wasn't some insane gun platform, or a later era suit, it made up for that with its speed and with its overall performance.

Calvin shook his head, 'So many people think that using some high end suit will guarantee them victory, but it's more about the quality of the build than what suit you're using.' Grabbing the Defender and putting it into a small case Calvin headed out.

3:12PM Smith Hobby Shop.

The Smith Hobby shop was one of the hundreds of Hobby shops that had arisen in the wake of the Plavsky particle/Gunpla boom; unlike many of the stores that had advertised that they had a huge Plavsky Particle systems that could hold up to twenty competitors and only carried whatever model kits were popular at the time, The Smith Hobby shop had instead only bought a small Plavsky Particle system meant for at maximum four people, and carried a massive stock of Gunpla, and modeler supplies, this kept them afloat in terms of business but little else.

As Calvin stepped into the shop he was greeted with a cacophony of angry hoots and war cries. 'Someone's having fun.' Calvin thought to himself letting a small grin crease his face, he always liked the Smith Hobby shop.

The store wasn't physically huge but its aisles were stuffed full of kits, each with a section devoted to Real Grades, Master Grades, High Grades, and a small section devoted to the No Grade and First Grade kits, along the wall were several racks of various paints and tools and at the back of the store was a small case with a padlock on it, storing the Perfect Grade kits. 'Smith keeps acting like someone's ever going to actually go after those kits, he doesn't realize that any potential thief is more likely to go afte-' Calvin's thoughts were interrupted by a very loud and deep voice calling out to him, "Ringo! Nice to see you again, I was wondering if you'd forgotten about me and my store or if you'd gone traitor and bought online!"

Calvin turned around and was greeted with the rather intimidating sight of ,Roger Smith, built like a human tank with an imposing 6'3 height, gelled black hair, he carried muscle like a bear carried fur, and was dressed in a simple black suit.

Calvin regarded with a raised eyebrow then gave a melodramatic pose of shock, "Go online? Mr. Smith you wound me! Why go online, have to fight the post office, have to make sure that what was sent to me is right, and in good condition, when I could simply take a 30 minute drive and get what I wanted from a respectable businessman."

let out a small laugh, "Such a detailed denial to such a simple question, one would wonder if you're trying to hide something under all that flattery too."

Whatever response Calvin had prepared for that was quickly cut short with the loud accented voice of the Plavsky battle system. "BATTLE ENDED.", followed by the sobs of one person and the whoops of another. "Dumbass! Next time try using something beyond the basic kit and maybe you won't suck so hard!" The jeer came from a teenage girl with raven black hair with red tips, dressed in a set of punk rockers clothes with open knuckled gloves. In her hands was a Black and Red custom Deathscythe Gundam. On the opposite end of the system was a young boy who couldn't have been older than ten, on his knees, and cradling the remains of a Sandrock EW, which looked like it had been beaten with a hammer.

Barely able to hold back his tears the boy was stuttering out "Bu- But you said, you said you wouldn't-" The girl started laughing like a maniac looking down on the kid, "PLEASE! Idiots who take everything at face value deserve to have everything smashed away!"

Mr. Smith let out a growl and walked over towards the two "Skeerdsly! One of the rules in this store is that you never destroy another person's Gunpla in a battle, since you did you're going to pay for a new kit and then apologize!"

The girl whipped around to face Mr. Smith and laughed right in his face, "Pay for this brat to have another kit? I'd sooner give up my Titus DeathDealer!"

Mr. Smith narrowed his eyes looking ready to throw her out of the store, when Calvin decided to step in. "Then why not make a bet, Ms. Skeerdsly was it? A one on one challenge, my Defender versus your Titus, I win, you pay for that kids new Gunpla."

Skeerdsly gave Calvin a shark like grin, "Oh you are so on, but when I kick your ass you're going to pay for that kid AND pay for me to get a new kit as well." Calvin nodded it was a risk he could take.

They both got in position over the Plavsky Battle system. "PLEASE SET YOUR GP BASE!" The system boomed out, they both did, "BEGINNING PLAVSKY PARTICLE DISPERSAL" A cloud of blue and white particles flew out of the system, creating a heads up display, a pair of small orbs to serve as controls, several monitors to act as cameras to see the surroundings, and finally the particles hovered over the field setting up the arena. "FIELD ONE; DESERT." "PLEASE, SET YOUR GUNPLA!" Calvin set his Defender, after a few seconds the Gunpla lifted its head, the acid green mono eye flashing to life and setting its feet on the catapult. "Calvin Ringo, Gelgoog Defender, let's go!" The Gelgoog rocketed forward flying off the catapult into the air, landing near a ruined building.

Across the table Skeerdsly set her Titus DeathDealer, the Black and Red Gundams bright purple eyes shone to life, "Trisha Skeerdsly, Titus DeathDealer, LET'S ROCK!" The DeathDealer rocketed forth and Calvin was finally able to get a good look at the suit.

The DeathDealer certainly bore an intimidating look, with the cloaked head and skeletal torso of the Gundam Deathscythe, the huge bright red arms and legs of the Gundam AGE-1 Titus, wearing a pair of boxing gloves, and on the back was a GN-Tau drive slowly emitting red particles. _'A Gundam made for someone who destroys other people's hard work, how sickening.'_ Calvin thought.

The DeathDealer was the first to move, charging forward with one arm arched back "I'll see your monument to Zeon broken!" Skeerdsly roared." Calvin grimaced, hitting the Defenders thrusters and, climbing into the air while he brought the Beam Machinegun to bear, but couldn't find anything.

A warning tone made him swing the Defender to the right; the DeathDealer had already followed him up, another punch coming his way. 'How in the hell is it so fast?!' Calvin thought, barely having time to react. The Gelgoog's mooneye flashed, bringing its Boxer shield forward to meet the punch. The two suits met the blows directly, the impact went up both arms, and after a second the Gelgoog's Boxer shield shattered, and both suits flew backwards, then dropped toward the desert below.

The Titus landed first, slamming head first into the city ruins that dotted the field. It took a good fifteen seconds before Skeerdsly could stand the suit back up.

The Gelgoog Defender had better luck though, landing in a sand dune and it only took Calvin no more than a couple of seconds to right the Defender and have it boost back up into the air. As Calvin scanned the surrounding area, he noticed that the Ruins Skeerdsly had crashed into didn't give him a clean line of sight, meaning if he went into the ruins to hunt for the Titus, he'd be in Skeerdsly's domain, an urban slaughterhouse of close quarters combat and plenty of ambush spots. _'Bad ideas all around there, but if I just sit and wait it just gives her a chance to pop out and charge me again. No, I have to be the one who attacks.' _

The Gelgoog Defender flew to the northern outskirts of the city limits. Calvin set the Defender's Beam Smartgun to Sniper mode, giving him a much more powerful shot, but a severely reduced rate of fire. Calvin set his sights on the end of a very long row of buildings nearest the dust cloud that was still visible from the impact.

Skeerdsly had been busy; she'd stuck to the cover of the city, more specifically she stuck to the cover of the buildings that were closest to her impact zone. Once she could get out of the city and onto the open ground, she'd go Trans-Am and close the gap faster than Calvin could react.

Or at least that's what she would've done had it not been for the massive pile of rubble that landed right in front of her Gundam. Her eyes went wide, "What the-?!" More rubble began falling and bright bursts of yellow beam fire lanced through more buildings, taking out the supports and forcing Skeerdsly to move as fast as she could get her Gundam to move, dodging both city remains and beam shots.

Calvin continued to lay down shot after shot, once he saw Skeerdsly's trail of Red GN Particles he began leading his shots so that he'd trigger a domino effect of falling buildings and rubble. A small grin graced Calvin's lips, _'Typical, her suit's practically a mirror, all brawn and no sense of strategy. I've got this.'_

As the buildings and rubble continued to pile on, Skeerdsly was close to being buried, the building chunks were becoming harder to dodge. Finally she gritted her teeth and activated her Trans-Am. "I won't go down! Not to some punk who's not even using a Gundam!"

The Last of the buildings fell, Calvin felt quite confident that he was going to win this. 'Justice shall be served today, bullies like her need to have a lesson in humility.' The Defender moved in, ready to find whatever was left of its opponent.

Just as the Defender was reaching the edge of the new ruins it had created, a bright crimson ball burst out of the debris, it was the DeathDealer, gaining a mass of altitude, going higher than the Defender, to the point that it overshadowed the suit.

Calvin was shocked; he'd never anticipated Skeerdsly to use her Trans-Am to ambush him, much less for her to use it to survive the debris cloud. The Defender brought its rifle into a two handed grip, moving to shield itself with the rifle from whatever oncoming attack the Titus was about to unleash.

Skeerdsly let out a whoop, and the Titus DeathDealer stuck out its left leg going for a hard kick. The kick connected, breaking the Defenders rifle in half and shredding a good part of the front Skirt armor.

Calvin didn't have time to count his good luck, the Titus was still right in his face, and his only chance to win at this point was to gut the suit before it could line up another attack.

The Defender reached out to the Beam Axe on its right side skirt. The axe burst to its full length and width. "The day is mine!" Calvin hollered, and the Defender brought its axe down, cleaving the Titus DeathDealer in two at the waist.

The DeathDealers eyes flickered once and faded, the red hue that adorned the suit vanished, and the suit fell to the ground.

The voice of the Plavsky Battle system boomed out again, "BATTLE ENDED." The particles faded away and the Gunpla had returned to their default state, minus the damage inflicted. Calvin let out a relived sigh _'That could have been much worse,'_ Calvin thought, reaching across the table and gathering up the Defender and putting it back into his carrying case.

Mr. Smith had already approached Skeerdsly, she stared down Mr. Smith and they locked gazes. After a tense moment, Skeerdsly eventually reached into her pockets and handed over a crisp twenty dollar bill, nodded and handed the twenty to the kid, "Head over to the high grade section and grab whatever kit you want," the kid nodded and ran down the aisle. Calvin smiled as he saw the kid carefully looking the section over, 'I'm glad I was able to do a little bit of justice here.'

Looking over by the front door to the shop Calvin saw Skeerdsly sitting on a bench gazing sadly at the broken form of her Gunpla, he walked over towards her, " , I'm sorry I destroyed your Gunpla. I know it's pretty terrible having something you obviously sunk a lot of time and money into damaged, but it wasn't right to just trash that kids Gunpla and lie to his face." She lowered her head, and then raised a finger, telling him to come closer. Calvin shrugged and got down to her level.

SMACK! Calvin was sent right to the floor, a bruise already forming on his cheek. Calvin felt the area and gave her a shocked look. "What did I-" he then felt a booted foot pushing down on his chest.

Skeerdsly looked down at Calvin her eyes narrowed and he could see the fury she was very poorly containing, "Bastard!" She stepped off applying more pressure to his chest as she did before storming out of the store.

Calvin was still trying to figure out just what the hell happened when he heard laughing from , "Ringo, you know that was stupid right?"

Calvin looked at him, "Uhh, not really, all I did was apologize and explain my actions."

shook his head, "The first part was a good idea, the second half… not so much, no matter your reasoning, she still didn't get her way and you damaged something she built."

Calvin raised an eyebrow, "Yeah but my Defender took some damage too and I didn't lose my temper like that."

nodded, "True, but she's got a talent for model building and Gunpla battle, losing… isn't exactly normal for her."

This really got Calvin's attention, "What do you mean?" he asked, rising up from the floor.

pointed to a small frame on his wall, on it was the results of the last in shop tournament; Skeerdsly had come in second place. "She's been competing in the tournaments for the last few weeks; she's good but always lost to our reigning champ."

Calvin nodded as he looked at the tournament results, his curiosity piqued, he turned to Mr. Smith and asked him "Is your tournament sanctioned by PPSE?"

Mr. Smith nodded and replied "I only got the sanction a two days ago, My shops tournament is considered a district qualifier, everyone's welcome to enter as long as they abide by tournament rules and my own personal rule about not destroying anyone's Gunpla."

Calvin smiled, he'd been hoping for that answer, "When's the next tournament?"

handed him a single sheet of paper. "Fill this out and bring it to me on Saturday, You get two Gunpla, a main and a backup, this week we'll be running a randomized two on two team battle, first place team heads on to the regional tournament." Calvin took the form, bought the can of orange spray paint he'd come for originally, and headed out.

4:52 PM Calvin's Home.

After he'd returned home, Calvin checked the front door, sure enough there was a box waiting for him, 'Not bad, it only took the thing about two days to get here, glad someone was selling this kit too.' Opening up the box he was greeted with his newest project. Two boxes containing an HGUC 2.0 Blue Destiny Unit Two, and an HGUC ReZEL. _'This is exactly what I've been waiting for, a chance to rise put my skills building and fighting to use. I know I can at least make it to Regionals. The Defender, and my soon to be built ReZel EX, I'm going as far as I can. I want it all, the fame, the fortune, and if I can make it to even the world tournament…'_ Calvin paused, the very idea of making it to the world tournament was make him shake with excitement. _'I can make my passion my livelihood.'_


	2. Nobleman

(A/N: Well, this took much longer than I expected but it certainly was worth the wait. I took the time to flesh this chapter out more and focus on fight scenes; hopefully this will be a better read than the last chapter. Big thanks to hawkeyeriku, who's been invaluable in helping me with my writing and with this story.)

Build Fighters: Advent, Chapter 2.

The Nobleman, Hawk Magnus.

_Spanish National Gunpla battle tournament finals, City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia, Spain. 6:30pm._

The City of Arts and Sciences was certainly one of the most aesthetically pleasing places one could hold a Gunpla battle, with the architectures unique style and the pools of water surrounding it. Some had concerns of where the battle could be held since the current Exhibits took up almost all of the available space, to keep the Exhibits preserved from rabid fans and to address these concerns a float had been set up in the pools surrounding the city, with a giant Plavsky Particle unit resting on top, allowing sixteen competitors to use the unit at a time.

The Nationals had been going on for the better part of a week now, unlike most other Tournaments, the Spanish tournament hadn't been solely dedicated to single elimination matches, the Tournament's theme had been a selection of the mode by the audience for each battle. This resulted in a multitude of events, such as a free for all to kick off the tournament, a 4v4 capture the flag game, and most astounding of all, Gunpla Soccer with an RB-79 as the ball.

Tonight marked the final match of the nationals, with only two combatants remaining. On the right was the defending champion Francisco Serrano, a man with olive skin, bright blonde hair and a fair amount of muscle. His Gunpla was the very same that had taken him to the World Tournament finals, the Calatrava Gundam. Using the GN-0001.5 Gundam as a base and replacing the wing binders with a weapon rack containing a custom made buster rifle in the left rack, and a handmade metal tipped Rapier on the right, as well as keeping the 1.5's basic Beam Rifle and Beam Saber. For a paint job the only major change had been that wherever there was blue on the 1.5 now there was a bright shade of teal.

To the left was the challenger Hawk Magnus, a young man no older than twenty, with a light tan to his skin, chocolate brown hair and hazel colored eyes wearing a leather flight jacket bearing his own personal emblem, a white Hawk hovering over three flames, two were a dark indigo shade and the last was obsidian black, Hawk had been one of the most unlikely competitors to make it to the final round due to the fact that his Gunpla, the Strike E Artillery, was a combination of the Strike E, a Ginn and the Buster Gundam, with no custom parts, only a simple two tone black and white paint job. Using the Strike E's main body and legs, keeping the Ginn's 76mm heavy machinegun, and swapping out the arms and shoulders for the Busters along with the Anti-Armor Shotgun and the 350mm gun launcher that were mounted onto the back normally where the striker packs would fit. In short, the suit was made for firepower.

Both competitors were making final preparations, little tune ups and cosmetic touch ups. By 6:40 the loudspeaker came to life with an announcement. "Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the finals for this year's National Gunpla Tournament, before we begin we have a surprise in store for our competitors! Keeping with our theme for this tournament, the organizers set up a booth in the last couple of hours, allowing all members of the audience to vote on not just the gametype, but the field that this would take place on. Even with such short notice we received over 5,000 votes, and we were able to determine a winner! Our gametype shall be a survival mode! Both players shall be granted half of the field and fifteen minutes, during that time the field shall be flooded with AI controlled units, whoever is capable of destroying the most units before time runs out, or the other competitor is overwhelmed and destroyed, is our victor! For our field the audience has selected field 28, Lantau Island!"

Hawk and Serrano were shocked to say the least, this was an unprecedented choice, the victor of a tournament hadn't been decided by AI destruction before and whoever won had a good chance of being looked down on by the rest of the world tournament because they hadn't proven their skill in a single elimination match.

There wasn't time to voice a complaint as the automated voice of the plavsky battle system chimed in. "PLEASE SET YOUR GP BASE." Both combatants did, "PLEASE SET YOU GUNPLA." Serrano set his Calatrava Gundam, the bright green eyes coming to life with a bright flash. Hawk did the same, setting his Strike E Artillery, the suits Orange eyes fading in. Once again the automated voice chimed in. "BEGINNING PLAVSKY PARTICLE DISPERSAL." the blue and white particles flowing out and creating the ring around them. "FIELD 28, ISLAND."

True to the description it was a perfect representation of Lantau Island right down to the hilled terrain and the energy barriers along the perimeter and straight down the middle of the island, preventing Serrano and Hawk from interfering with the others match. In the center of the island was an enormous mountain, at the top the burnt husks of the four heavenly kings and the Devil Gundam could be seen.

Hawk grasped the controls, "Hawk Magnus, Strike E Artillery, LAUNCHING!" The Black and White Strike rocketed out of its hangar, Taking a position at the top of a hill and combining the Shotgun and the 350mm into the Hyper Impulse Sniper. Hawk grinned. "I've got this."

Serrano had taken to his side of the field, keeping to the air and scanning the ground. "Shouldn't be too hard, I'll stay afloat and gun them down from here. "

After a thirty second preparation period an alarm sounded. The first wave had arrived. From beneath the ground several dozen Zakus, Leos and Tierens burst out across the field, splitting up into four man squads and then engaging in a search pattern.

Hawk still waited atop his hill, deciding on the first target he'd go for. After fifteen seconds he saw a Leo spilt off from his squad. His chance had come; taking aim with the Hyper Impulse Hawk plugged the Leo right through the Chest. The Leo went up in flames and left a small crater behind it. The two Zakus and the remaining Tieren were quick to figure out Hawks position and promptly began shelling Hawk's hill. Disassembling the Hyper Impulse and storing the 350mm Cannon, Hawk kept the Shotgun and grabbed the Ginn Machinegun off of its holster. Dropping down the Hill and hitting the Verniers hawk began weaving through the squad emptying his assault rifle into the Tieren and sending a shell from the shotgun into the first Zaku, then delivering a spinning kick to the second Zakus head. The impact was strong enough to knock the suit into the ground; Hawk raised his shotgun and finished the Zaku with a shotgun blast to the chest. The Strike's eyes flashed and Hawk moved on, this time aiming for a larger group of Tierens.

Meanwhile, Serrano was still hovering above the field sniping whatever targets got in his way, he'd taken the lead and had yet to run into anything serious._ 'This can't be all; they'd have to be crazy to throw such simple units at us.' _Serrano thought. It didn't take long before Serrano's suspicions were confirmed when a huge beam blast came for him, it was a G-bit firing its satellite cannon. Serrano boosted as hard as he could to the left, barely dodging the blast. The Calatravas sensors then flashed a warning sign to the left, right and directly behind Serrano, there were now four G-Bits surrounding him each had their Satellite cannons out and charging. Serrano smirked, "This is more like it." The Calatrava took out its custom made Buster rifle, holding it two handed, the rifle began to glow bright blue with a charge. "You four have pretty big guns, but mine…" The Buster Rifle fired, a brilliant blue burst of lightning roaring into the first G-Bit, obliterating the suit. The Calatrava began turning left, the Buster Rifle still firing, burning the second G-Bit, finally, the Buster Rifle ran out of energy as the Gundam came to a stop in front of the third G-Bit. The rifle had depleted its energy just before reaching the suit. Throwing the Rifle away and drawing its custom made Rapier the Calatrava rushed forward, impaling the Bit in the chest. "Mine's bigger." The G-Bit fell out of the sky, exploding before it hit the ground. The Fourth G-Bit was still lining up its shot when the Calatrava drew its regular GN Beam Rifle and shot it through the chest. The G-Bit exploded leaving nothing more than a small pile of plastic. "As they say, four is death." Serrano quipped, letting the Calatrava slowly descend to the ground, ready to hunt for more ground units.

Back with Hawk, the Strike E Artillery had been very busy, the suit had been keeping to a serpentine pattern of movement, catching squad after squad of ground combat mobile suits in the flank before they could react; Hawks kill count was on the rise and was beginning to edge out Serrano's. _'I can do better, Serrano's good but I have the edge in firepower.'_ Hawk thought as another Tieren went up in flames. Hawk hit the boosters on the Strike and took to the top of another nearby hill, combining the Shotgun and the 350mm again to form the Hyper Impulse Cannon, Hawk began scanning for targets. _'Nothing new yet, odd that they aren't sending more aft-'_Hawks thoughts were interrupted by a shell going off right in front of him. "What the-" More shells came flying in all landing either near the Strike E, one shell managed to get a hit in, blowing off the right shoulder pad of the Strike. Hawk threw the Strike up into the air, it was then that the Strikes sensors caught up and zoomed in on four Xamel artillery tank mobile suits each had been dropped at the four corners of the field and had set up for long range cannon fire, each one was in the process of trying to get another lock on Hawk. _'Damnit, the Strike's so heavy it can't stay in the air like this for long. I'll have to move quickly.'_ Hawk hit the boosters, rocketing towards the northwest corner of the field and the nearest Xamel, the weight of the Strike was already beginning to drag the Gunpla to the ground until the suit was just barely over the ground. As he arrived at the Xamels position Hawk began taking heavy machinegun fire and had to duck behind a rock formation to keep his Gunpla from taking any further damage. The Strikes head poked up from its cover and found the source of the fire, two squads of Leos and Zakus had taken up a defensive perimeter around the Xamel. _'You've gotta be kidding me, I didn't think the AI was this smart!' _ More artillery fire began falling around the Strike E, it wasn't anywhere near the rock formation yet but it wouldn't be long before they zeroed in on his position. The Strike rolled out of its cover, firing the Hyper Impulse and wiping out two of the Leos and one Zaku, the Strike then split the Impulse cannon back into two weapons and released a barrage of fire, taking out two more Zakus. The Artillery Fire was getting close, and Hawk was running out of space. Ignoring the remaining guard suits, Hawk took aim at the Xamel with the 350mm rifle, firing three shots into the artillery suits chest area, the Xamel's monoeye winked out of existence, silencing the suit. "YES!" Hawk cheered, "One down, got three more to-"more shells detonated around the Strike, and one was dead on target, taking half of the Strikes head and the entire V-Fin clean off. The Strike E artillery fell face first to the ground, and Hawk let out a frustrated hiss, the remaining Xamels had him locked, there might not be any getting out of this…

Meanwhile Serrano wasn't much better off, with the loss of the G-Bits the remaining ground suits had begun to form up into large concentrations of sixteen or more suits, and with the lack of a buster rifle to clear the field, he'd been forced to resort to hit and run attacks against the masses of suits. And his kill count had stagnated because of it… then came the Virgo Mobile Dolls. The Virgos had been hell on wheels for Serrano, his reliance on Beam Weaponry had left him with his rapier and beam saber as his only viable option to breach their Planet Defensor shields. Even Serrano's Aerial Sniping wasn't doing much to even the odds. The Calatrava was hovering a few feet in the air at the southern boundary of the island trying to find a small suit squad or even a lone Virgo. Sadly there wasn't anything on his sensor board, "I've got to keep moving. Anything is better than just standing here." The Calatrava started to climb, but was cut off when a beam cannon blast struck the suits backpack, destroying the left weapon rack and sending the Calatrava crashing to the ground. As the Calatrava struggled to regain its balance Serrano saw the source of the shot, six Virgo mobile dolls, all of them were advancing on him and his downed suit. '_I've reached my limit…'_ Serrano reluctantly admitted to himself. The Virgo dolls stopped a few feet away from the Calatrava looking the same as a firing squad, each one charging their Beam Cannons, the Calatrava was still trying to get up when a loud low toned note played. The automated announcer came over with a message. "Discontinued."

Across the field all A.I. Controlled suits came to a stop and the controller section of the holographic interface turned yellow. The sportscaster began speaking to begin an explanation. "Right folks we've run out of time and both of our competitors are even in terms of destroyed A.I. suits, rather than throw a second wave at them we've decided on a different kind of tie breaker."

The center of the Island started to change, the husks of the four heavenly kings were dragged underground, and the lifeless husk of the Devil Gundam began to regenerate, its eyes glowing bright red. The sportscaster came back over the air, "For our tie breaker both of our competitors are being given a single target. The Devil Gundam, the match will end when a decisive blow is dealt to the head of the Devil Gundam, or a competitors Gunpla is destroyed." Storm clouds began to form over the arena and heavy rain began falling around the island. The barriers separating the middle of the field deactivated, and the Devil Gundam continued to regenerate itself and dig into the ground, an array of Beam Cannons forming around it.

Hawk had been able to get the strike back up, he'd lost most of his sensors with the V-Fin, but his optics were still functioning and that was all he needed to see the target. It would be a contest of both speed and firepower. Hawk only had one of those, but he had enough firepower to negate his lack of speed. The Strike could still form the Hyper Impulse cannon, and there was a trench that he could use to get himself close to the Devil Gundam. Enough to take one shot with the Hyper Impulse Cannon and take its head clean off. _'I can do this.' _ The Strike combined its weapons, '_I didn't come this far to lose to some giant abomination of Gundam design.' _The Strike E Artillery charged its thrusters and raced down the Trench, its goal clear as could be. _'I'll win this match; I'll prove that you don't need fancy custom parts to be a great fighter in Gunpla Battle.' _

Serrano had righted the Calatrava and was racing through the Air as fast as the Gunpla allowed, a crazed look in his eye _'No. No I won't lose! I have to get back to the world tournament! On my honor as the Knight of Spain I won't fail!' _ The Calatrava had reached the crater the Devil Gundam was holding in, beam cannon fire leapt up to meet him and Serrano had to keep his suit from being shot out of the sky. The Calatrava had grabbed its GN Beam Rifle and had been busy trying to get shots off at the Devil Gundams head, but with all the maneuvering it was doing, there wasn't time to get a solid lock. Serrano growled and charged his Gunpla forward, drawing both the GN Beam saber, and his custom Rapier, taking beam cannon fire and losing the arm holding the Saber, "I don't care what happens to this Gunpla, I need to win!" The Calatrava was feet away from the Devil Gundams head, Rapier pulled back to deliver a stab to the head, when an enormous red blue burst of energy seared through the Devil Gundams head, searing through and taking the Calatrvas remaining arm. Hawk had made it to his sniping position.

The automated announcer chimed in. "Battle Ended." The crowd went wild, cheers could be heard throughout the entire museum at the results, the underdog had come through. The sportscaster came back on. "And the winner by a shocking last second shot, HAWK MAGNUS!" The crowd cheered again, louder this time. Both competitors were stunned. Hawk even did a double take. "I… I won?"

Serrano stood there, shocked at his loss. There was nothing to do, he couldn't challenge Hawk to a fight, he'd won fair, and he hadn't cheated. Serrano let out a sigh and walked over to Hawk, holding out his hand, "You've done well, hope you realize that you're representing our entire country in a pretty big event."

Hawk stood there for a moment, he nodded, and shook Serrano's hand. "I'm well aware, but I won't fail and I won't come back empty handed." Both Hawk and Serrano held up their fists in the air. "_A Victoria en la arena internacional!" _ The Crowd cheered again, the loudest they'd ever been.

_Valencia, Spain, unnamed restaurant, 8:45PM._

After wading through the sea of sports reporters, fans and Gunpla enthusiasts, Hawk did his best to quietly leave the event. It didn't go nearly as smoothly as he'd hoped. With his face broadcasted on National TV he'd been stopped by so many people in the streets, many were congratulating him, others were just asking for Autographs and pictures, and a few others asked if he could give them tips on Gunpla. All of it Hawk had been told to expect should he win, but it was still a bit of a system shock. Eventually Hawk found his way to small café that was unaware of his identity, and he'd placed an order of _Jamón ibérico de bellota, _the food was good and the restaurant was so sparsely populated which gave Hawk a moment of peace and privacy. A small smile crossed Hawks face, inside he was excited. '_The World Tournament, if Serrano was one of the Finalists in it, I know I can win this.'_ He pulled the damaged form of his Strike E Artillery out, looking at the remaining half of the face, "I know that you and I can make it there, partner." Half an hour later, Hawk had paid for his meal, and was on his way back to the Hotel he'd been sponsored by, confident in his chances and eager to get to the world tournament.


End file.
